NEWARK — Sister Antonelle Chunka, a Felician nun, was once a teacher and principal at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, but was called to counsel and support youthful offenders. In the last 31 years, she has opened her heart to thousands like Gerardo Gomez, the last man tried in the Mount Vernon schoolyard murders.

Wednesday, the kindly nun was the only person to step up and speak for the convicted killer. She told the court she has met with him every week for five years at the youth correctional facilities where he awaited trial and found "goodness" and a "ray of hope" in him.

"He is a very gentle soul and a very caring and sensitive person," Chunka said. "He did not plan what happened, he did not want it to happen, and he couldn’t stop it from happening. He did not glory in it."

Aug. 4, 2007, the night of the murders, was his 15th birthday, and "he was a little kid, a skinny runt," she said, unable to stand up to his older cousins, Rodolfo Godinez and Alex Alfaro, and the other MS-13 gang members who took part in the killings.

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She spoke of his remorse, of the long letters of sorrow he wrote to families of victims Iofemi Hightower, Dashon Harvey, Terrance Aeriel and his sister, Natasha, the only survivor of the attack.

Chunka spoke of the tears he shed when he thought of their families and the pain he inflicted on them. She told the court Gomez prayed for them.

But when Gomez was offered a chance to express this deep remorse and profound sorrow in court Wednesday, he declined. He shook his head and said "No, your honor" quietly when Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin asked him if he had anything to say.

At that moment, Sister Chunka, now seated in the gallery, said, "I’m shocked. He should have said something. I’m shocked."

This was not lost on James Harvey, who gave his victim impact statement moments later.

"The sister said how sorry he is, and that he wrote letters, but today when we’re all here … today is the day to say he is truly sorry, and his unwillingness to do so is a slap in the face," he said. "And for that, I cannot forgive."

Nor was it lost on Ravin.

"The defendant had the opportunity to express remorse and did not," Ravin said during sentencing. "Mr. Gomez does not accept responsibility for anything that happened or anything he did."

Responsibility was the heart of the Gomez trial. He was the youngest of six defendants, with no previous criminal record. Defense attorney Michael Robbins argued that Gomez was mostly a bystander in the murders, probably fearing for his own safety as older gang members Melvin Jovel shot the victims with a .357 handgun, Jose Carranza cut Natasha Aeriel’s neck with a steak knife, and Alfaro used a machete to mutilate Iofemi Hightower, who was also shot.

"How could he not be involved?" Robbins said prior to the sentencing. "What could a 15-year-old child do once Jovel and Carranza decided what to do?"

Robbins also cited Gomez’s upbringing and abandonment by his father.

"His father came to visit him in Hudson County (youth house)," Robbins said. "Then he asked for the number of his attorney: He was curious if he still had to pay child support under the circumstances."

Robbins presented Gomez as a "juvenile not beyond redemption" and said consecutive sentences that would amount to life without parole would be "unjust and unnecessary."

But the "monstrousness" of the crime outweighed all those factors, Ravin said in sentencing.

"What happened in the schoolyard that night was evil incarnate," the judge said.

"Three lives, three futures, taken away. And for what? Gang status," he added with disgust.

Noting that Gomez began to cry during the victim impact statement of Shalga Hightower, as did many in court, Ravin said, "I sat here wondering, ‘For whom does he weep? For the victims or the families? Or does he weep for himself, knowing his fate?’â "

Minutes later, the judge delivered that fate: 195 years in prison before any chance of parole.

Gerardo Gomez —15 on the night of the murders — will grow old and die in jail.